Unit 3: Advertising and social media analysis
Marketing Analytics notes · PTU syllabus (MBA 961-18)
On this page
Unit summary
Advertising and promotion budgets must be justified by measurable results. This unit covers the performance of ads, media planning, advertising and sales promotion budgeting, measuring retail and promotional lift, social media metrics, and descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics in marketing.
After this unit you can
- Measure advertising performance and plan media
- Set advertising and sales promotion budgets
- Measure retail and promotional lift
- Use social media metrics and the four types of analytics
PTU syllabus topics
- Performance of ads
- media planning
- advertising and sales promotion budgeting
- measuring retail and promotional lift
- social media metrics
- descriptive/diagnostic/predictive/prescriptive analytics
- Prescriptive
What should we do?
- Predictive
What will happen?
- Diagnostic
Why did it happen?
- Descriptive
What happened?
Topic 1
Performance of advertisements
Communication effects
Recall, recognition, awareness, attitude change — pre-tests and post-tests
Sales effects
Sales lift, marketing mix modelling, test vs control markets
Digital metrics
Impressions, reach, CTR, view-through rate, conversion
Gross rating points (GRP)
Reach (%) × average frequency
Target rating points (TRP)
GRP among the target audience
Cost per thousand (CPM)
Cost ÷ impressions × 1,000
Cost per point (CPP)
Media cost ÷ GRPs
Example
A TV campaign reaches 60% of the target audience an average of 4 times: TRP = 240. If it cost ₹48 lakh, cost per point = ₹20,000.
Topic 2
Media planning
- Decisions: reach vs frequency, effective frequency (often 3+ exposures), media mix (TV, digital, print, OOH, radio), scheduling (continuous, flighting, pulsing), budget allocation.
- Data sources in India: BARC (TV ratings), IRS (readership), Comscore and platform analytics (digital).
- Tools: media planning software, optimisation of reach curves, marketing mix models.
Topic 3
Advertising and sales promotion budgeting
Affordable
Spend what the firm can afford
Ignores objectives
Percentage of sales
Fixed % of current or forecast sales
Simple; treats sales as cause not effect
Competitive parity
Match competitors' spending
Uses market wisdom; ignores own goals
Objective-and-task
Define objectives, tasks and their cost
Most logical; needs data
Share of voice
Set SOV above market share to grow
Based on SOV–SOM relationship
- Response models: sales response to advertising is usually concave (diminishing returns); optimal budget where marginal contribution equals marginal cost.
Topic 4
Measuring retail and promotional lift
Promotional lift
(Sales during promotion − baseline sales) ÷ baseline sales × 100
Incremental contribution
Incremental units × margin − promotion cost
Promotion ROI
Incremental contribution ÷ promotion cost
Example
Baseline weekly sales 2,000 units; promoted week 3,000 units → lift 50%. If margin is ₹20 per unit and the promotion cost ₹15,000, incremental contribution = 1,000 × 20 − 15,000 = ₹5,000.
- Retail lift studies: test and control stores (difference-in-differences), scan data, adjusting for seasonality, cannibalisation and post-promotion dip.
Topic 5
Social media metrics
Reach and awareness
Impressions, reach, followers, share of voice
Engagement
Likes, comments, shares, saves; engagement rate
Conversion
Clicks, CTR, leads, sales, cost per acquisition
Advocacy and sentiment
Mentions, user-generated content, sentiment score, net sentiment
Customer service
Response time, resolution rate
Engagement rate (by reach)
Total engagements ÷ reach × 100
Topic 6
Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics in marketing
| Type | Question | Marketing example |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptive | What happened? | Monthly sales and campaign dashboards |
| Diagnostic | Why did it happen? | Drill-down showing a sales fall came from one channel |
| Predictive | What will happen? | Churn model, response model, demand forecast |
| Prescriptive | What should we do? | Optimal budget allocation across media, price optimisation |
Key terms
- GRP
- Reach multiplied by frequency
- Objective-and-task method
- Budget built from objectives and required tasks
- Share of voice
- Brand's share of total category advertising
- Promotional lift
- Percentage increase in sales during a promotion
- Engagement rate
- Engagements as a percentage of reach
Quick revision
- Ad measurement: communication and sales effects; GRP, TRP, CPM, CPP.
- Media planning: reach, frequency, mix, scheduling; BARC, IRS.
- Budgeting: affordable, % of sales, parity, objective-and-task, share of voice.
- Lift, incremental contribution, promotion ROI; test vs control.
- Social metrics: reach, engagement, conversion, sentiment; four types of analytics.
Important exam questions
Practice questions written to the PTU exam pattern for this unit's syllabus: short answers (Section A style) and long answers (Sections B and C style).
Short-answer questions
- Q1.Define GRP.
- Q2.What is cost per thousand?
- Q3.Name four advertising budgeting methods.
- Q4.How is promotional lift calculated?
- Q5.What is engagement rate?
- Q6.Give one example each of predictive and prescriptive marketing analytics.
Long-answer questions
- Q1.Explain how advertising performance is measured.
- Q2.Discuss methods of advertising and sales promotion budgeting.
- Q3.Explain the measurement of retail and promotional lift with an example.
- Q4.Discuss social media metrics and the four types of marketing analytics.
Stuck on this unit?
Message SBS on WhatsApp for help with Marketing Analytics, or to ask about studying MBA at Synetic.